The brand new Challenge Mallorca Femenina race series kicked-off the 2024 European women’s calendar at the weekend, and as the home WorldTour team, the Movistar squad were keen to aim to make an impact. More so than usual this year.
For Movistar, when the whistle blew to mark the start of the first-ever Trofeo Felanitx-Colonia de Sant Jordi (Ses Salines), the sound simultaneously ushered in the team’s first pedal strokes since 2020 without the towering figure of Annemiek van Vleuten in their ranks.
How the Van Vleuten-vacuum will affect the broader peloton remains to be seen, but if there’s one place where it’s already been noted, it has to be in Movistar.
The three Mallorca one-day races acted as curtain-raisers on that adaption process, of course: But the Spanish team’s riders have already begun to work through what the broader brushstrokes of what racing without Van Vleuten could be like.
“Annemiek’s been very important for the team, a great leader, a person who has given a lot to cycling, a reference point,” up-and-coming pro Sara Martín told Cyclingnews at the Queens of the Alhambra race in Granada, the first Spanish criterium specifically created for the women’s peloton which took place last December.
When asked back then if she believes Van Vleuten’s absence will mark a ‘before’ and ‘after’ for Movistar, she answers simply, “I think so.”
“Not having that key leader in the Grand Tours this year will make the team change. We’ve always been consistent, and maybe we’ll all be playing our cards in different races now, being more versatile and doing the races differently. But we’ll still have some different challenges and some great options.”
Martin says, even though specific strategies are too early to pin down, “we’ll have to wait until the beginning of the season for that, but we already know it’ll be different.”
“But you never know. It could even be a good thing, it could mean the other riders can evolve and we will have other opportunities and we can be more ambitious as well.”
In terms of how ambitious Martín will aim to be in 2024, even last December, her goals were clear.
“I want to go flat out, and every rider wants to prepare themselves as well as possible. I think I’ve got room for improvement and lots of details I can polish. I think I can be at least as good as I was at the end of last year, maybe even improve a lot more.”
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